Walking the walls

So Professor Shields wanted to take us to walk the old land walls of the city on Monday. Little did she know that we had more acrobatic plans for the walls. When we got of the train at the Yedikule stop and moseyed our way to the first watchtower, we were immediately giddy and couldn't wait to climb (not walk) on everything, giving Prof. Shields a heart attack. As we wandered up the winding, sunlight lit (and sometimes not lit) stairwells i couldn't help but feel the great sense of wonder and mysteriousness that surrounded the place. The ten of us went all the was up to the top of the first watchtower and did what any group of 10 college students would do, sing "I'll make a man out of you" from the Disney movie Mulan (our group's fav.). At one point Edward came running out of the stairway to chime in, making all of us die laughing! The song just seemed so appropriate bc it's about getting prepared for battle just as many people had to be prepared to defend the city, and it's one of the songs we all know by heart : )

It was really cool when we went over to another part of the wall and got to see the old prison. It was pretty spooky, especially when Prof. Shields told us that the shaft in the ground was used for. It was used to put the decapitated bodies in and it drained out into the sea. Ahh!! Creepy!

After walking (aka climbing) the walls of a bit we stopped for lunch at this cool place that had popasans for chairs. Perfect! Later we finished walking the walls but not before walking through a gypsy neighborhood, seeing an old Armenian church, getting lost, meeting some kids, and missing our ferry back home. It was a great day, one of my favorite yet : )